As Nancy Dussault approaches the Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University, a 50-ish man is waiting for her. Because she was the last Maria on Broadway in "The Sound of Music" in 1963, he's been waiting all these years for her to sign his program.

Dussault doesn't scribble a quick, illegible signature, but takes time to write a genuine note. How fitting that the actress, who's doing A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters" at Shadow Lawn Stage in West Long Branch, writes a fan a type of love letter.

The Toluca Lake, Calif., resident, now 71, says though she starred in five Broadway musicals from 1960 through 1989 -- and was the first co-anchor of "Good Morning America" in 1975 -- she still represents a first theatrical experience for many people. We asked her to talk about some of her own theatrical experiences.

So is this the first time you're doing "Love Letters"?
No, I've done it quite a few times, though I told David (Hedison, her co-star), "You're not my favorite person to do this with" -- because I've enjoyed it more playing it with my husband.

He is?
Valentine Mayer. We met in 1977, when he stage-managed the "Side by Side by Sondheim" I was doing on Broadway.

Love at first sight?
No. When we met, I thought he wasn't my type. Still, I was separated and eager to meet someone, so I asked him out, which was an enormous thing for a person of my generation. I thought, "Women's lib has finally reached me!"

Did he write you love letters?
I still have them! He has a real gift for writing that I don't have.

Melissa Gardner, the woman you're playing, certainly has it, doesn't she?
Oh, yes. She writes all these letters to a young man named Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, through boarding schools, marriage and children.

What do you enjoy about the character?
She's quite different from me. She grew up wealthy. I was the daughter of a Navy father, which meant moving here and there.

What do you claim as your hometown?
Maybe Arlington, Va., where I went to high school. One day a choir teacher said to me, "I want to meet your family." She told them, "Your daughter can really sing. Do you know that?" And then she turned to me, and said, "Do you know that?"

Did you?
Not really. I loved to sing, but thought I'd be a teacher. This was in April, and in September I was at Northwestern.

After graduation?
I came to New York, got in some off-Broadway shows -- though I turned down the original lead in "The Fantasticks." I told them to hire Rita Gardner, who got the part. But I did a revue that got me noticed for a Broadway musical called "Do Re Mi."

And helped introduce the song "Make Someone Happy," didn't you?
I've tried to live by that!

Favorite memory from "Good Morning America"?
I learned to be more thoughtful and not make assumptions. This was right after Watergate, and my first instinct would be hostile to any friend of Nixon who came on the show. Soon I saw that they were human beings, too.

So you owe a great deal of thanks to that teacher, right?
Actually, I should have written her a love letter.